AI leaders lobby Trump health officials in government-run chat room

A group of influential individuals, including tech executives, financiers, and high-ranking Trump administration officials, have been quietly working for a year to encourage Americans to adopt AI-driven healthcare applications and tools. The administration has granted these companies the unique privilege of influencing the nation's health department, allowing them to bill Medicare for AI services as the government does for medical professionals.

In February, federal health officials invited representatives from tech giants such as Microsoft, Anthropic, OpenAI, Apple, and Google to a private meeting at the Food and Drug Administration to discuss conversational AI products for patients, such as chatbots. The meeting took place through a private Slack channel, which is not publicly advertised and was limited to a select group.

The Health Technology Ecosystem, a loosely regulated initiative led by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, aims to integrate AI and other technologies into healthcare, allowing health apps to bill Medicare for their AI services. Critics, including doctors, are concerned about the lack of data and understanding of how these tools work and the potential risks associated with them.